FORMER national and Rewa team captain Amani Makoe has been suspended from all levels of football for three years.
Fiji Football Association chief executive officer Mohammed Yusuf said Makoe tested positive during the Anti-Drug test during the pool stages of the Vodafone Fiji FACTin Lautoka.
“It is a repeated offence as he tested positive during the national team camp last year,” Yusuf told Fiji Times Online.
“We suspended him for a month last year but since he hasn’t improved, he won’t be able to play football for another three years,” he said in a phone interview.
Nadi’s Emmanuel Moses Prakash is also on an indefinite suspension from all levels of football when he failed to attend a drug test during the tournament.
“If a player fails to attend a test he/she is deemed to be positive of drugs.
“He (Prakash) has been suspended and will appear before the (Fiji FA) Board of Control and then we will decide on his future.”
Yusuf, in his capacity as a member of the BOC, said they were investigating Prakash’s case, and they would meet over the matter by the end of the month of mid-June.
This is Prakash’s first tournament in the top division, according to the Fiji FA boss.
And he was also part of the Fiji U23 trials that were carried out in January and April this year.
Pacific Games football duo
Meanwhile two players’ chances of making it to the Pacific Games squad for Team Fiji’s football team now hang in the balance.
Suva duo Christopher Wasasala and Laisenia Raura broke camp earlier this week from their team camp in Vatuwaqa0.
Now their fate of representing our island nation is at the mercy of the Suva Football disciplinary committee.
Wasasala and Raura were named in the 29-member squad to take part in the Games in Samoa come July.
The Suva Football Association has confirmed their suspension.
Fiji FA chief executive officer Mohammed Yusuf said it now depended on the disciplinary action that Suva would take.
“If they are suspended only at district and club levels, they can feature for the national side,” Yusuf said.
“This depends on the severity of the offence. If they are suspended from all levels, obviously they won’t be able to feature for the national team,” he added.
Suva Football president Ritesh Pratap told Fiji Times Online that information he received, Wasasala and Raura had sneaked off to a Suva nightclub on Tuesday night.
The team is in camp at the Fiji FA Academy quarters preparing for their semi-final clash against Ba in the 2019 Vodafone Fiji FACT tomorrow (Saturday, May 11, 2019).
Pratap said they had informed the head of the disciplinary committee, Suva lawyer Deepak Chand, and a date had yet to be set for the committee to sit.
Attempts to obtain a comment from Chand last night proved futile.
Responding to queries of any Police involvement, Yusuf said they were not involving Police in this matter.
“However, we are having talks with Police as to how we can have them assist us in this matter in future scenarios,” he told FTO.
Meanwhile, anticipation is high among football fans as they anticipate the semi-final and final Fiji FACT matches this weekend.
Nadi plays Lautoka at 1.30pm at Lautoka’s Churchill Park tomorrow – Saturday, May 11, 2019. Ba takes on Suva in the second semis at 3.30pm.
The final will be played on Sunday at 3pm.
